Enlarge image
Ailing VW boss Diess: Still counts in the upper half of Dax bosses when it comes to salaries
Photo: Carsten Koall / dpa
Herbert Diess is currently under strong pressure in the VW Group, the future of the CEO is uncertain in view of the dispute with employee representatives.
Perhaps he is comforted by the fact that, with a salary of 6.1 million euros in 2020, he was still in the upper half of the Dax bosses.
On the other hand: In the previous year he had received around 900,000 euros more.
But it is in line with the trend, as the study »Management Board and Supervisory Board Remuneration 2021« by the management consultancy PwC shows: In 2020, business in many companies weakened due to the corona crisis - and corporate managers also earned worse overall.
Only eleven percent of the Dax CEOs waived their salaries
Accordingly, the Dax CEOs received a total of around 6.5 percent less than in 2019. In the year before Corona, the median was 5.5 million euros, in 2020 the total fell to 5.1 million euros.
This happened voluntarily for a few: Only about eleven percent of the Dax CEOs waived part of their remuneration because of the pandemic, the study says.
The authors examined the remuneration of members of executive and supervisory boards in 2020 at the 160 companies that were listed in Dax, MDax, SDax and TecDax as of December 31, 2020.
The index composition that has changed since September 2021 is not taken into account.
The median figure means that half of managers earn more and the other half less.
»The 2020 financial year was a challenge for many companies in the Dax family.
And that is clearly reflected in the continuing decline in executive board remuneration, «said Petra Raspels, partner at PwC Germany and Europe.
In addition to the CEOs, according to the study, the other DAX board members also received a lower remuneration with an average of 2.3 million euros (minus 9.5 percent compared to 2019).
The main reason for this: the gloomy global economic situation caused by the corona pandemic.
For many managers, parts of the salary are linked to the fact that their company achieves certain economic metrics.
While in Dax, MDax and SDax - in the latter, medium-sized and smaller companies are listed based on trading volume and market capitalization - median remuneration fell, in the TecDax it rose sharply.
The salaries of the CEOs of the technology stocks increased by a whopping 13.6 percent compared to 2019. In relation to the other board members, the TecDax earned around 6.5 percent more on average than in 2019.
apr